Work or call shy academic (9)
I believe the answer is:
scholarly
'academic' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'work or call shy' is the wordplay.
'work' indicates anagramming the letters.
'or'+'call'+'shy'='orcallshy'
'orcallshy' anagrammed gives 'SCHOLARLY'.
(Other definitions for scholarly that I've seen before include "in academic style?" , "Learned, academic" , "Involving serious academic study" , "Erudite" .)